| |
DAWSON ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE June/July 2008 Project Update This e-mail update is part of the Dawson Adapting To Climate Change project. Updates will be sent out to keep the community informed about what has happened so far and to give notice of upcoming events. |
| Articles |
|
1. CAVIAR Researchers Have Arrived and Want To Talk To YOU! The CAVIAR Dawson Project includes field work incorporating community workshops and interviews at both the household and government department levels to develop a database of perceptions of and exposure to stresses, responses and capacity. Starting in June and carrying over into July, three graduate students (Rashaad, Aaron and Joana) from Ryerson University will begin conducting interviews in and around Dawson. The project leader is Professor Frank Duerden, from Ryerson University. Joana and Aaron are currently up here, and Rashaad will be joining them soon. They would like to interview as many people as possible, so please make every effort to make yourself available when they contact you. The success of the project depends on getting a large as possible a sample from the residents of Dawson. Should you wish to contact them, they can be reached through the Northern Climate ExChange Dawson Office - 993-4401. They can also be reached by e-mail:
|
|
2. CMHC Northern Sustainability Forum The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation held a Northern Sustainability Forum in Dawson City in mid June. Northern Climate ExChange employees Sebastian and Lewis were invited to attend and presented on our excting Dawson Adapting To Climate Change work done to date. Other attendee's included representatives from:
Presentations were, as was to be expected, on the need to build better houses and to build houses designed for the North and to meet the needs of Northerners. Much interest was expressed in the precipitation and temperature modelling that has been done as part of the Climate Change Adaptation project for the Dawson region. This work, commissioned by the Northern Climate ExChange, was done by the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium. Part of the discussion at the CMHC forum following the NCE presentation was around the possiblity that increases in snowfall will have to lead to a re-examination of how structural loads for roofs are considered. Increased rain could also impact drainage and foundations. A highlight of the Forum was a tour of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in Sustainable Demonstration House. This is a good example of both design and construction practices that implement energy efficiency concepts.
|
|
Future stages of the Dawson Adapting To Climate Change project will include technical workshops to be held in the late fall. These workshops will be aimed at those within the greater Dawson area who make work related decisions that involve adapting to climate change. This will include municipal managers, lands officers, emergency coordinators, and representatives from various industrial and commerical sectors such as placer mining and tourism. The results from these workshops, combined with the results from the CAVIAR surveys, will form the basis of the draft Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan. It will show how to build capacity within the greater Dawson region, and it will also identify areas where capacity has to be increased and specific adaptation actons need to be taken. The draft Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan will be presented to the greater Dawson community at what is anticipated will be a community feast. This will be an opportunity to gather community feedback, and modify the Plan based on what the community tells us. As planning for both the workshops and community presentation starts to come together, dates and locations will be advertised. Watch this space for the 'when and where' of these exciting events. |
|
The Northern Climate ExChange office (located in the Dawson Yukon College Campus buiding) is the place to go for information on climate change. Information is also available on the internet at www.taiga.net/nce. As reports are gathered, such as the CAVIAR results and the precipitaton and temperature projections, they will be made available. Where possible the Northern Climate ExChange will post these items in electronic format on the internet. Paper copies are available by request. The Northern Climate ExChange also has an extensive resource library with a large selection of books, DVDs and periodicals dealing with all manner of climate change issues. The library can be searched on-line at www.yukon.taiga.net/nce/library/. Should anyone have questions, please do ask. Contact information for the Northern Climate ExChange staff involved with the Dawson Adaptation Project is at the bottom of this e-mail. |
|
A cultural landscape is a landscape that tells a story. It is a physical area that is important to humans due to the stories we associate with it. Examples in the Dawson area include the Moosehide Slide on the Midnight Dome, the tailing mounds from the dredges in the Klondike River valley and the Paddlewheel Graveyard downstream from the government campground. There are stories and legends associated with these areas. Climate change has the potential to affect all aspects of the physical world, and in doing so has the power to alter how these stories and legends have been written into the landscape, or to erase them completely. The strength of researching cultural landscapes is that it is both immediate and highly personal to all those within the Dawson area who are familiar with the local landscape. It demonstrates how climate change may affect local populations and the cultural relationships they have with the land. Cultural landscapes also create a framework from which local knowledge can be incorporated into climate change research. The Northern Climate ExChange will be doing a pilot project on the effects climate change could have on a sample of the cultural landscape of the Dawson region. The results will be available in the fall. |
|
6. Contacting the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Team Sebastian Jones Tel: 867-993-4401 The Northern Climate ExChange main office is in Whitehorse at Yukon College. It is behind the main campus building, in a A-frame type building hooked up to a wind-turbine and some solar panels. The Community Adaptation Project Manager is Lewis Rifkind. His contact information is as follows: Lewis Rifkind Tel: 867-668-8874 And don't forget to check out the Northern Climate ExChange website at www.taiga.net/nce. |
|
|
 |